Halloween Lunchbox ideas

If you follow me on Instagram you might have noticed that I really enjoy preparing my kids’ lunch boxes 🙂

Through the years and with two picky eaters I learned that color + fun is a winning combo to grab your kid’s attention at school at lunch time. My priority as a mom is to send them to school with healthy and balanced food options packed in the lunch box. At the same time I know that lunch time is 15 minutes every day (that’s the amount of time they are “obliged” to stay sit at the cafeteria tables before running out to play), a short time with tons of distractions (friends to chat with, things to look at from the squirrel on the tree outside to the flower on the table…) and no mom present to focus their attention on food 🙁

So…I really try to pack not only nutritious lunch boxes, but fun, colored, inviting ones. And, of course, without spending more than 20 min every evening to prepare them.

Luckily seasonal holidays make my lunch box preparation easier as I can really play with the themes 🙂

October just started and of course, the most exciting kids’ holiday is coming soon: Halloween!!!

I would like to share with you some Halloween themed lunch boxes that I prepared for my kids using easy tricks.

1. Stickers on Banana. That’s really the easiest way to decorate your lunchbox in few seconds. Not only, it’s a fun activity for your kids to do while you prepare the rest of the lunchbox 🙂
2. Halloween gadgets next to the food. It can be a spider ring, a vampire mouth, a zombie finger. Anything you already have at home but that your kids will not expect in the lunchbox. Warning!! If your kid is too little to understand the difference between food and a plastic gadget, skip this idea and look at the next one 🙂
3. Banana mummy. Use any kind of light fabric you can find in the kitchen (cheese cloth, white paper napkin, white paper towel). Break it in stripes with your hands (the scissor will do a too precise job, sorry!) and simply wrap the banana with it, like mummy bandages. It doesn’t need to be prefect. For the eyes you can simply use a sharpie/black marker.
4. Banana Jack-O-lantern. That’s another easy one: a sharpie/black marker will do the job. Your kid is not going to eat the banana peel, so don’t worry about the marker.
5. Banana scream. If you have at home some of the googly eyes used for art and craft projects, it’s time to use them!! You can either use one big eye and draw a screaming mouth with a black marker or create a multi eyes banana monster 🙂
6. Banana Tatoos. That’s a fun project to do with older kids. The banana peel is very sensitive and if you touch it with a pointy object, it will leave a dark brown mark in few minutes. Using a toothpick or you can even use a pencil without top you can design your chosen subjects (a scream in my case). It works like the invisible pen. When you trace it you don’t see anything, but in few minutes the dark color will pop-up. Super fun!
7. Jack-O-lantern sandwich. In this case you only need a knife to cut our two triangles on top, one in the center and a moon shape at the bottom of the top slice of bread. For a better result, I would suggest to fill the sandwich with an orange colored food on top like a slice of orange cheddar cheese or a pumpkin hummus spread.
8. Mummy apple. You only need a knife and some patience. Simply peel the apple in not regular stripes: I went up and down with the knife. The apple skin left will be the mummy’s bandage. With the knife make two holes in the upper skinless apple stripe: those are the mummy’s eyes. Optional, you can fill the eyes either with raisins or chocolate chips.
9. Jack-O-Lantern apple. If you enjoy carving, this decoration is for you! With a knife cut out two cylinders on top, two small rectangles for the nose and a sequence of small rectangles for the mouth. 
10. Look for Halloween snacks at your favorite store!! When I go to my grocery store I always look for seasonal healthy snacks like these Ghost baked potato chips or bat pretzels.
11. Meatballs monsters. If you are already preparing a meatball or patty/fritter recipe, simply change the shape of your regular meatballs into a monster one. I had fun with a crawling fish monster using green bell peppers and olives for decoration and also with a chicken meatball using zucchini and carrots for decoration. If you would like to check the full recipe, here you are: Fish Monsters and Chicken Skull
12. Chicken strips ghosts. Baked chicken strips are one of my kids favorites..and with two olives they become ghosts!!
13. Halloween cookie cutters. They can transform a boring pineapple slice in fun bats or a traditional sandwich in a witch sandwich.
14. Celery mummies. Celery + cream cheese + ham + olives. That’s what you will need for this fun Halloween recipe!! (check out how to do it here)
15. Pizza Ghosts. I love to prepare homemade pizza as I can really play with the toppings like with this mini pizzas where I used a cookie cutter to transform the mozzarella into a ghost. (check out the video recipe here)
16. Mandarin tongues. Slightly open the mandarins in half and place a slice of strawberry in the center: your strawberry tongues will come to life!!
17. Strawberry Ninja. Sweet idea: simply cut with a knife a strip on the top part of the strawberry. Insert either chocolate chips pieces or raisin pieces as eyes.

So many ideas and as you can see easy and simple to realize!! Which is your favorite Halloween Themed Food??

If you are looking for more ideas, check out my Instagram in the next weeks: spooky lunch boxes are coming to life!!

Ciao, b